Sunday, October 2, 2011

NIKE recently released 1500 pairs of the shoe made famous in the 1989 movie BACK TO THE FUTURE Part II. The shoes sold on EBAY to raise money for Parkinsons Research.

Above, the concept design art for the shoe in the movie. In the film, the shoe would be like nothing we had seen before and featured 'power laces' as well as various illuminations. The letters MAG on the heel stood for 'Magnetic Anti Gravity' and were supposed to allow the wearer to be able to walk up a wall or even stick to the ceiling. Due to technological limitations of the time, a scene with Marty walking on the ceiling was never shot.

This is the actual product NIKE released for 2011. Whilst it does have the lighting, there are no 'power laces'. The laces are nothing more than elastic. The shoe was designed from scratch to look identical to the shoes in the film, yet even NIKE product personal recognize that its design has inspired many of the shoes NIKE released over the years since it first appeared on screen back in 1989. The 'clean toe' being one in particular. I would also have to say that it was this shoe that propelled the popularity of the Hi-Top in general.